At the end of a battle, the victorious character or characters will almost always perform an action to celebrate their success. It may be small (thrusting one arm up) or elaborate (jumping for joy and shouting) depending on the character or the circumstance. You may even see a full-on Happy Dance. Stab the Sky and Bicep-Polishing Gesture is often a victory pose.

Examples:

In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Judai/Jaden has a Victory Pose on winning a duel — he extends his middle and index fingers and gives a quick salute, saying, "Gotcha!" (or "That's game" in the English).

During the Legendary Heroes arc of Yu-Gi-Oh!, the heroes overcome a powerful enemy in the virtual world they're exploring. There's then a cut to the villains monitoring their progress via a viewscreen... which shows the heroes as 16-bit sprites doing a "jump up and down" Victory Pose. One of the stingers in Yu-Gi-Oh The Abriged Series set that clip to the victory music from Final Fantasy VI.

Ash in Pokémon invokes a Zelda-ish, spinning Victory Pose pose after receiving gym badges. There's also a relatively long music sting (relative, because most of the leitmotifs in the games are four or five notes - this one's a classic victory horns that takes about six times as long).

Ash also has one whenever he catches a Pokemon. One episode has Tracey trying to invoke it after he catches a Scyther, and Ash trying to teach him how to properly pose with his pokeball.

Yatterman has the titular character and his partner announce the pose and do an entire victory Happy Dance. It usually ends in an actual pose (pushing their arms together and kicking out one leg) and a "Three cheers" type of chant.

Film

In the James Bond movie GoldenEye, Boris the Russian computer specialist does this when he cracks a system or performs another feat of coding mastery. 'I am inwincible!' are his final words, uttered while in this pose, just before a tank of liquid nitrogen exploded and froze him solid still in his pose.

The movie version of Street Fighter included a closing scene wherein all the "good" characters were celebrating the destruction of the Big Bad's hideout — the freezeframe at the end catches them all in their Victory Poses, which, as it turns out, is not as awesome in live action.

Doctor Who: In the Fourth Doctor's first story, "Robot", after killing the robot, the Fourth Doctor cruises towards UNIT, standing up, arms raised wide, scarf flapping, and looking up to the sky in ecstasy. It's notable for a couple of reasons - first, that it's virtually impossible to imagine the Third Doctor doing that after killing the Monster of the Week and serves to play up their contrast, and secondly because he says in the following scene that killing the monster was Dirty Business and seems suitably sombre about it.

Mixed Martial Arts fighters and boxers get their hand raised by the referee when their victory is announced. Fighters will also usually raise their hands after the final bell, before the verdict is rendered, in hopes of influencing the judges with their confidence.

Sebastain Vettel is infamous for his "one-finger salute" out which he sticks his pointer finger whenever he gets a pole position or a win.

After winning the Stanley Cup, the trophy is awarded to the winning team's captain, who always raises the trophy over his head triumphantly prior to taking it for a victory lap around the rink (usually while still holding the trophy over his head). He then hands it off to a teammate, who will do the same thing, until everybody has had a chance to do so. See here◊ for Pavel Datsyuk taking his lap with the Cup in 2008.

The Tampa Bay Lightning used to have stripes on their sweaters' underarm gussets, which the team called "victory stripes", as they would usually only be seen with a Victory Pose. The team demonstrated this when they won the Cup in 2004◊. This little uniform quirk was removed when the team changed their home and away uniforms in 2011, and their alternate uniforms in 2014.

Webcomics

RPG World spoofed this. Hero throws his fist in the air, Eikre folds his arms all cool-like, Diane bends over and makes the victory sign with her hands, and Cherry raises one finger while looking annoyed and bored.

Video Games

Mario series:

In Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 64 DS, every time you grab one of the level's stars, Mario spins around, throws up the V-hand-sign, and says "Here we go!". The DS version removed the actual fingers from the equation, likely due to needing to cut down on polygons - leaving Mario, Luigi, Wario and Yoshi just jabbing their fist into the air.

In Sunshine he catches the Shine Sprite and holds it toward the screen after collecting it.

In Galaxy, has two, depending on whether it was a regular Star or a Grand Star you just collected.

The sequel ups it to four, depending on whether or not you were riding Yoshi at the time you collected the Star/Grand Star (or eight if you count Luigi's poses.)

In Super Mario World, normal levels have Mario march to the right as the Course Clear message appears, then do the V-sign as the screen iris-in's around him. You can die while he's doing this.

Mario or Luigi would do a V-sign at the end of a level in the All-Stars version of SMB.

Parodied in Super Mario RPG. Just as Mario does his victory pose after getting the Masher, the hammer falls on his head, then parodied again later in the game when one of the Seven Stars is intercepted mid-victory animation by a boss.

Similar to Mario's V-hand-sign, Wario (particularly in recent games with him as the protagonist) performs a W-hand-sign when he does something particularly awesome.

Luigi's poses — even more than Mario's — are hammy, especially when Luigi does a Happy Dance. In Luigi's Mansion 2 he'll start off with a happy leap into the air (complete with streamers). Then once the Results screen tallies his earnings and stats, he'll shrug or dance depending on the rank.

At the end of the Prime games, Metroid's Samus Aran tends to raise her Arm Cannon above her head like the victor of a wrestling match would raise his/her arm (putting her free hand on her hip is optional).

Final Fantasy games have had these since the sprite days. Back then, the heroes would merely pump their fists, looking like they were running in place. As the technology progressed, the characters' poses gained variety, detail, and even sound.

Final Fantasy II has a variation: The characters dance twice, then walk off the screen.

Final Fantasy IV is the first game in the series to give some characters different pose animations (most noticeable with Cid.)

In Final Fantasy IX certain characters will stop doing their victory pose between certain plot points, usually when something is upsetting them.

The lack of victory pose also shows up in VII (after the fight with Jenova Life) and X (during Zanarkand).

Final Fantasy X: when Lulu finishes off the last enemy, the camera may focus on her, and unlike Tifa, physics really come into play with her. The pose itself? She leans forward. Needless to say, her outfit is low-cut enough that plenty becomes readily visible. Finish any battle with the party on Haste in Final Fantasy X and you get to see their poses done in hyper speed. Just look at Wakka's... Ahh, yes. Wakka's air humping.

In Final Fantasy XII, each character has a multitude of victory poses available after boss fights, depending on the type of weapon used or some little thing the character does independent of weapon.

In Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, Lightning has a different victory pose for each garb. The Crossover outfits (Cloud's, Yuna's, and the miqo'te's) use the original character's victory pose and the victory theme from their game.

Most of the characters' poses were retained for Dissidia: Final Fantasy and its sequel, with only Cloud's (the fist-pump is gone and he does a single sword-spin rather than the multiple spins from the original game), Zidane's (Adds another rotation to his backflip) and Tidus' (A mix of his above water and under water poses) being changed. Dissidia even added poses to those who didn't have them before, namely the characters from the sprite-based games.

Final Fantasy XIV has victory poses for parties that completed a dungeon or raid. Each race has their own unique pose. It gets more awesome when you clear the Crystal Tower and get to see a full alliance of 24 people all do a victory pose. Occasionally subverted like in other games in the series, but only the first time said dungeon is complete.

Final Fantasy Record Keeper uses the fist-pumping style again to go along with the sprites, although there are some exceptions such as Red XIII throwing his head up as if he was howling.

Planescape: Torment subverts this in a hilarious manner: one of the items the player can summon with an in-game cheat (the "Tome O'Cheats") is the "Sword of Whynn" - an extreme version of the Sword of Plot Advancement, that, when held up in an appropriately pathetic victory pose, allows the player to instantly win the game. And all this is actually explained to the Nameless One by an NPC, no less.

If the player puts away the sword immediately after killing an enemy, Link will spin it around and sheathe it in a cool and classy way. He also does this in a cutscene after each Boss Battle - this is lampshaded slightly in one case where he does this then realises that the boss is Not Quite Dead after all. This particular pose also returns as one of Link's taunts in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and can also be performed right before the end of a match.

There is also a scene where Link participates in a joust on horseback, in which he must force his opponent to fall off of a bridge. When he wins the joust, there is a Victory Pose of Link and his horse Epona on the bridge; Link stares down after his fallen adversary while Epona rears up on her hind legs.

Sakura Wars had the characters specifically do this at the end of every chapter or battle, complete with them actually saying "Victory Pose!"

The King of Fighters has a ton of these, naturally. There are ones that are always with certain characters from game to game, and even character-vs-character specific ones. Orochi Iori's is just him howling, and Shingo just collapses, exhausted and amazed that he won.

At one point in Ratchet & Clank, another Sony second party game, the titular characters do the same dance as a nod/in-joke.

A rather unusual example: Zappa in Guilty Gear is possessed by spirits, and as such is Not Himself during battle. His "victory pose" is the spirits letting go of him, at which point he passes out.

Skies of Arcadia generally has at least three Victory Poses for each of its playable characters, including a 'weary' victory pose if they win with low HP. Also there are set victory poses in the game where Vyse, Aika, and later Fina all get together, do a lot of hand slapping and then all point and smile for the camera when they find a Plot Coupon. Funny as you've normally got four characters, leaving the fourth person in the background; poor Enrique looks like he wants to be part of it!

In Pokémon X and Y, the PC does a quick fist pump after beating a trainer with a 3D model. During the final battle with Lysandre, the male PC does a double fistpump, while the female PC breaths a sigh of relief.

In Modern Warfare 3, the first thing Price does after killing Markarov is to sit up, pull out a cigar, and light it.

Previous games of the series had victory/defeat cutscenes. If you won, the logo of your faction kicks the ass of the logo of the other faction, for instance. If you lost, it was the other way around. This is a lot cooler (and more depressing if you lost) than it sounds.

In Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, whenever infantry units win a battle, they will begin cheering and jumping up and down. The Forgotten mercenaries will even fire their miniguns into the air.

Similiarly, all of your troops start their unique cheers when victory is achieved in the Myth series of RTT games.

Another RTS example: The Battle for Middle-Earth had your troops cheering after every successful minor skirmish. That is to say, if you send one squad of cavalry to run down one squad of orcs, they will stop and cheer once the orcs are dead. Every. Time. Well, at least morale is good. They will also cheer if a hero is present and nearby. Which makes sense for, say, Aragorn or Théoden, but the Hobbits?

Krystal and Fox in Star Fox Adventures strike a pose when they acquire a Krazoa Spirit, and Fox strikes one when he releases a spirit. Oddly, he does not strike a pose upon defeating a boss.

Mega Man X: X pumps his fist in the air, Zero just gives a thumbs-up, which he stops doing after X5. In later installments, Axl does X's fist pump and a backflip.

While the original Mega Man game just froze the Blue Bomber in place (and, depending on where you touched it, in midair) once you grabbed the end-of-level orb, in the Video Game RemakeMega Man Powered Up your character jumps into the air and assumes a victory pose.

In sequels, Mega Man just freezes in places while the victory music plays, so most players have him jump up into the air and take an impressive-looking pose.

The Tales Series is very fond of this in general. Later games in the series have refined this to giving specific teams of active characters their own post-battle combination taunts, who are near Easter Egg in rarity and take creative party combinations — and a lot of patience — to discover.

Tales of Hearts adds new layers to the context-sensitive Victory Quote. Examples: If Kunzite is ever poisoned or cursed, Hisui will ask him exactly how that happens to a Mechanoid. With a certain party in the icy north, Shing gets cold, and his love interest Kohak offers to hold his hands to keep him warm - flustering Shing and angering her brother Hisui. Specifically, the game has seventy-four different victory skits for different parties, places, situations, enemy types and bosses, and your combat efficiency, not including the normal individual "we won!" lines.

It's taken another step forward in Tales of Graces. In that game, solo victory quotes are said with all the fighting party members out. However, all of the group victory quotes have different characters, different poses (and moving around as if it was a cutscene), and many have different camera angles (which can change depending on what happens). There's even a Running Gag where Asbel attempts to initiate a group victory pose, only for the others to mess it up.

Even further in Tales of Xillia where everyone has a standard victory pose, a couple more for landing the winning blow, two poses for levelling up (the second just being the character standing somberly, usually at a point in the story where they may be upset about something), and poses where they interact with each other in addition to exchanging lines from previous games.

In One Must Fall, the competitors didn't have individual celebrations—but the robots did. The Jaguar, the Ryu/Ken of the game, raised an arm; the Flail gave a thumbs up and mimicked the motion with one of its chains; the Pyros fired its jets and floated majestically over its fallen opponent; the boss robot let out a big belly laugh (yes, a robot having a belly laugh), and so on. It was also explained as their turning to the camera and mugging for the crowd—the game would cut to a newscast (using black and white screen caps due to color limitations) describing your victory.

In the Naruto: Clash of Ninja (Gekitou Ninja Taisen) games, each character has a collection of victory poses and lines they use after fights (some are opponent specific). However not all of them are 'dramatic', Choji falls over with an upset stomach in some of his, when Lee loses to Tenten sometimes Tenten will be seen shaking Lee by the collar to see if he's okay, Guy vs. Lee ends with a hug if Lee wins. Shikamaru looks bored. Naturally, the characters that are more badass (Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi, etc) do proper victory poses.

The Super Smash Bros.: in versus, the victor will be shown doing a victory pose (sometimes awesome, sometimes humorous) while the losers (with some exceptions) clap politely.

In the first two games taunting at the end of a match will net you the post-game bonus "fighter's stance". Many people instinctively taunt after a KO.

In Psychonauts, Raz has a unique victory dance that consists of him "walking like an Egyptian" while "singing" a strange victory song. It's hard to describe, but hilarious. (He apparently stole the dance from a bully. In fact the first time he uses it was when he knocks the bully off from a grind rail.)

Characters in both games have access to the Victory and Winner emotes. There is also the You Bow Down emote to use against defeated heroes while playing a villain.

The animations for different Stalker Assassin Strike powers all end with a sort of victory pose that the character will hold until the player decides to move or attack again.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn was the first Fire Emblem title to have victory poses. When an allied unit kills their target in a round of combat, they do a brief tauntlike triumphant flourish, either with their weapon or with their arms depending on their class, in the background as their EXP increases and they gain a level. It makes a return in Fire Emblem Awakening, this time accompanied by a short voice clip, each character having about four or five to choose from.

Whenever Kirby completes a stage, he does a rather extravagant victory dance which ends with him splitting into at least three Kirbies. This is referenced in the anime, when a group of Waddle Dees do the shortened dance to thank Kirby at the end of one episode, music and all.

In Kirby & the Amazing Mirror instead of splitting up, as he already has, he dances by himself... unless at least one other Kirby is with him, in which case they'll have a dance routine that changes depending on how many Kirbies there are, with up to four.

In Kirby Super Star any helper will just jump around while Kirby does his more impressive dances.

Diddy Kong from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest breaks out into a sick freestyle when he completes a level... And Dixie goes APEsh... well, let's just say she gives a mean guitar solo when it's her that completes the level. All 5 playable kongs also have a shorter animation in Donkey Kong 64 after getting a banana.

Soul Blade and Soul Calibur]] had two to three victory poses for each character, with about seven lines for each stance. Some of the poses depends on how much health the character has. For example - Kilik has one in which he stands and just slams the end of his staff down, another (usually a "Perfect") in which he displays some of his skills, and a third when he's nearly dead where he falls to his knees, using his weapon to steady himself. Usually the win poses give insight to a character's personality.

Soul Calibur IV introduces the Critical Finish, an ability that scores a one-hit KO if used. Winning the match by using one will prompt a unique victory pose.

Lost Odyssey ends each successful battle with a pan over the party members, ending on the one who dealt the final blow, as they perform their various Victory Poses. The poses are mostly fairly standard, but Tolten's "victory pose" is an emphatic relieved sigh.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic and Knuckles have your chosen character (or characters, if you play as Sonic and Tails together) adopt a victory pose once Dr. Robotnik/Eggman (or the Robo-Robotnik/Eggrobo, for Knuckles) is defeated and the animal pod is opened - or, with Act 1 bosses, just after they're defeated. This is probably a result of these games having areas more 'linked' than in previous installments - Act 2 follows straight after Act 1 (as opposed to have the screen 'black out' between Acts) and there's usually a cut-scene to show the character moving from Zone to Zone, which probably requires that the character is in a certain spot to trigger it.

In Sonic Unleashed, depending on what rank you receive at the end of the act, Sonic (whether as Hedgehog or Werehog) will use a different pose to celebrate his victory. This is also done in Generations, and again, both Sonics have multiple victory poses depending on your rank.

In Ōkami, Amaterasu usually does a victory howl whenever you defeat a boss. She doesn't do one after defeating Crimson Helm, due to being in a hurry, and in the fight against Yami, she stops mid howl as soon as she realizes that Issun shouldn't be standing on her nose right now. This continues in Ōkamiden. And it's adorable.

In Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, upon receiving an emblem, Billy will spin around on one foot, before holding out a thumbs-up and yelling "Good Morning!".

In Wild ARMs 2, Lilka celebrates solving her Millennium puzzle by throwing up the V-sign.

In Metal Gear Solid, Snake will punch the air upon completing a VR mission. After completing the final mission in a bracket, he'll jump up and punch the air enthusiastically, yelling "yeah!" He does the same pose in all the later games (with minor variations, like putting his other hand on his hip in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty), and his father does the same in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater after completing a Duel. In Brawl, he sneaks it in after scoring a successful hit with the NIKITA.

In Snake vs Monkey, Snake will jog in place for a second before throwing up a fist with an enthusiastic "YEAH!" upon clearing a stage.

In Rome: Total War, your units will have a brief celebration if they manage to completely annihilate an enemy unit. Note that the game is wise enough to ensure that they don't do this if there are other enemy units close enough to pose a serious threat.

In Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 3/MUSIC FIT, during one-player mode, at the end of a song when your score is being tallied, your character will wait for the results of their score. It's even different depending on gender!

The best score, AAA, the character is obviously very triumphant. The girls gesture to the audience around them, then throw their arms out proudly; the guys do an "ooh yes yes yes" pose before punching the sky.

AA, they're not as triumphant, but they're certainly proud. The girls blow kisses and wave to the audience; the guys spin on the spot, then fist-bump the screen with both hands.

A-B, it's "oh I got a good enough score" type of pose. The girls do a happy sort of jig before waving to the audience again; the guys glance around in surprise, then hurriedly fist-bump the screen again, only with one fist.

On C-D, the girls act surprised that the audience is giving them polite applause and wave politely back; while the guys flair their arms for a second or two before calming down to smile at the audience.

On the failure score, E, their defeat poses are even complete with gloomy lighting and rain! The girls clutch at their head for a second before falling to their knees in despair; the guys do a "this can't be" kind of despaired shrug, before waving an arm dismissively at the audience and turning around, slouching sadly.

Many sports games exhibit this trope:

Madden NFL: Various incarnations of the Madden and NCAA (American) football series have featured automatic and/or player-controlled celebration poses/dances upon scoring touchdowns. At times, these could lead to "excessive celebration" penalties.

EA's FIFA series has a very deep selection of celebrations when a player scores a goal. Some of them require more controller dexterity than the goal itself. Also, goalies sometimes show a short fist-pumping animation upon making a save.

Sony's MLB: The Show series has short cut scenes when a batter hits a "no-doubter" home run. The shot is framed so that the batter, the pitcher, and the rapidly escaping ball are all visible. The batter admires his handiwork and casually flips his bat away before trotting off to complete his circuit, while the pitcher either stands with his hands on his hips or lowers his head in shame.

Inverted in Team Fortress 2: The team that lost is forced into poses that look sufficiently frightened and/or annoyed with the loss and are unable to do anything except taunt. The winners do not enter any pose, but instead retain control of their weapons, have unlimited crits, and are encouraged to continue attacking the losers.

At the end of the game, when the Big Bad is defeated, the player character does a little sky-punching animation.

There's also the "Cheer" emote that you can activate at will and depending on your selected class your character will perform one of three animations: Fighter classes get the dramatic and hammy striking of a pose while lifting their weapon in the air (unless holding a two-handed weapon,) support classes like Rogues and Rangers get the fist pump, and casters hold their arms out in a manner similar to pro-wrestler Raven's pose.

Whoever lands the killing blow in Persona 3 and Persona 4 will pull a victory pose. In 3, if the final blow was an All-Out Attack, the game treats it as the main character landing the kill; in 4, the party will instead perform a Team Shot of their victory poses.

In Persona 5, if a character initiates an All-Out Attack and finishes off the last enemy with it, a character-specific background with a Post-Mortem One-Liner written on it will appear alongside a splash screen of the character doing a Slasher Smile, popping a V Sign, doing a Chair Reveal with a cigar, and so on.

The Tank from Left 4 Dead, a super muscular zombie, will raise its fists in the air and slam them down to the ground if it manages to incapacitate or kill all the survivors.

Every playable pilot in Front Mission 3 has a unique pose when he/she destroys an enemy unit. Doubly awesome because it's the mecha they are piloting does the pose. Miho salutes, Ryogo gives a thumbs-down, Kazuki points skyward, Liucrosses his arms, and so on.

Daemon Bride is one of the few fighting games to avert this trope at all.

In Legaia II Duel Saga : Characters have a few poses depending on the characters health when they struck the killing blow such as Lang will swing his sword and pull his fist back if in decent condition or act as though he is wiping away blood for when he is in critical. He also has a second pose where he leans down and looks to be panting.

The Monster Hunter series has a Cheer gesture that can be done after a successful hunt, though most people don't. In 3 Ultimate the Hunters for Hire has different poses depending on if their hunt went well, with the "lament" gesture if they fail, kneeling on the floor (only to get up and fall down again if you talk to them to report the hunt), no pose at all if they succeed but then they start doing the "nod" gesture, crossing their arms and nodding once you talk to them, or doing the "cheer" gesture upon a huge success, the rest of the hired party joining in upon talking to them.

In Gruntz, the gruntz do that if they manage to successfully end a level. Their king even dances when it happens.

Freedom Planet has the cast do this at the end of most stages during the results screen, though it also plays around with it a bit. Stages that end on a downer (like Jade Creek) will lack the pose, occasionally the results screen will be preceded by a cutscene instead, and at the end of one boss fight, the boss will interrupt the posing by leaping out of the background to try to kill everyone in a last ditch attack.

The "mission completed" screen in Planet Blupi features a happy Blupi raising his fist in triumph.

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